With prompting from Capaldini, the panelists shared their respective insights and experiences for about 30 minutes, took individual questions from the audience for another 20, then worked the room at a free-form networking reception that lasted into the evening.

The panelists spent a lot of time talking about what they’d learned during their time in the manufacturing business — in some cases, from numerous employers over careers spanning decades:

Change Is Hard; Communication Helps

Eric Gibson quipped, “Culture eats strategy for lunch.” In other words, strategic changes that make sense to senior management often don’t translate well for the rank and file. Communication is key, even for seemingly innocuous initiatives.

For instance, Gibson recently deployed a new scheduling system that affected shift employees’ paid time off. “We didn’t do a good job of explaining how and why we were changing the system,” Gibson said, and employees pushed back harder than management anticipated.